The Arkansaw traveler., 1887-09-17
MY HAPPIEST HOUR.
Exchange.

experience in the happiest hour of his life.
 It was when I lost my arm at the battle of Seven Pines, on the penin- sular. We made charge about the middle of the afternoon. The firing was heavy; 1 fell severely wounded. was shot through the groin, and re- ceived flesh wound besioe this in the arm.
 On coming to myself the firing was receding, and there were none near me but the dead and wounded, as help less as myself I began to be very thirsty, and the pain of my wound, especially that through the body, was intense.
 About twenty yards from me l could hear the cool rippling sound of little brook running among some thick bushes. AS tried to drag my self toward it, for the lower part of my body was helpless, 1 found my arm was broken.
 Slowly and with great pain reached it, only to find the water running in channel some two feet be- low the level of the field, and utterly out of my reach. It had been a hot day, and I was parched with thirst and fever. Water was there in my sight, almost in my reach, and l was dying for the want of it. I dragged myself farther, reached over, lost my balance and fell into the stream. By Gods good providence was able to save myself little, so that my face did not go under. I fainted with the pain, and lay unconscious I know not how long.
 When 1 came to myself found my broken arm under me, the lower part of my body in the stream, which was twenty inches deep, and my head resting on the bank. The cool water had stopped the flow of blood. Above me, on the field were the sound and voices of the stretcher bearers, col lecting the wounded and burying the dead. 1 tried to shout so they could hear me, but was too weak. I was down in the brook, and the dense, thick bushes completely hid me from any one above.
 Hearing the voices receding, tried to lift myself and call with all my might, and in the effort fainted again
 When 1 came to, all were gone, and the field was still. 1 was left alone to die. "IIe was among the missing" would be all my friends would know of me.
 l thought of my young wife and my little one in my New England home. In was hard, very hard, to think of dying so-so lonely, so very lonely.
 There was only one place I could go for comfort. 1 went there, and this sweet passage came into my mind. The dear Lord seemed to say, "Let not your heart be troubled |; neither let it be afraid" I was able to give myself, my wife, my child, to his care. The peace of God came down into my soul, and filled it with joy unutterable.
 l looked up into the clear blue sky, which l could see here and there through the leaves, and saw overhead the white, tleecy clouds sailing past, and the sun stepping towards the west. l thought, before the sun sets, l shall be beyond the clouds, beyond the sky, at home. I shall have one of those many mansions. shall see Jesus and my Father, God.
 My peace ran like a river. I tried to sing. There, alone in those Vir- ginia woods, buried to the neck in water, and left, as thought, to die, I spent the happiest hour in my life and, as l sank once more into uncon- sciousness, hoped to awake with God.
 l was found just alive and cared for by the Confederates as they came on the ground. God gave me great favor with them, and they were kind to me.